The capsul in your hand continues its Eldish message inexorably [ . . . force penetrated the entire heath the first day. there has been no leak in the cordon, so we must assume that cornu losses must be heavy. a council is being convened to discuss disciplinary/punitive . . .]

“FUCK disciplinary!” you snarl, throwing the delivery capsul across the desk. It rebounds and lands on a shelf, tucked between an enemy spirit pouch and a large spiral-shell pendant. You gather your implements of aether and ether manipulation. There is only one image in your mind: Irga, laughing at your clumsy jokes, teaching you to make love, learning the nature of the universe with you, leaving for a short visit with her clan now of all times . . .

“Those doddering fools, " you rage, " can’t even see the opportunity in front of their faces!"

“They did have a point, Ary, the nexus would fail if used as an energy source instead of simply an amplifier of aether. You can’t expect them to understand the difference between the ways Aether and ether are generated. After all, " Irga points out, " we are just learning how to effectively harness ether ourselves."

You sigh, resigned and look around your study. The walls are lined with shelves displaying artifacts sacred to various peoples—stonekin gems, displayed next to eld diamond cores, human fetishes, idols and symbols, Kaldan treatises on religeon and religeous history, and Nyssa’s cornu seminal piece all have their place of honor in your haven of peace.

Plants and Fire. What could go wrong?

So, the purple lights go out in Zerhun. Man, I hope that does not bode ill for our team.
We head our butts over there, and and discover that Eva is under attack by man-sized bushes.

Time to get back to business.

These bushes look like bears, but not like topiaries. Weird. As Raharjo guns the engine, I
take aim with the crossbow, burying one in the bear. Raharjo brakes and Nihm goes flying with a fierce meow. She digs her claws in, and leaves smoldering claw marks in its trunk, splitting the thing in half. Ricky makes his move, but I can’t quite make it out.

One of the tree people actually picks up Eva and it looks like it tries to eat him! One of them strikes out at Nihm and whiffs completely. I see that they’re trying to dismember Eva now, but the Eld does that himself.

Trying to come to the rescue, I run up the hill and toss a grenade that explodes right beside them, and splinters fly everywhere. I’m not convinced that I’ve really done anything, though, but Raharjo tosses one himself into the thick of it. He seems to have fared better than I did, blowing one all the way to Kingdom Come.

I see Nihm run and jump onto the altar and jump onto a tree. I lose sight of her, and I see that Ricky utterly destroys another bear tree. And suddenly, the very last tree standing sprouts another head and another leg, and grows to about four times its size. It smashes Nihm (and itself), and Eva tries to drag her away.

With Nihm free and clear, I toss a grenade at it, and I make it count. It blows a giant chunk of the tree completely away. Raharjo finishes it off, thankfully.

A sigh of relief. Nihm helps Eva find his limb, but is too far away for me to hear clearly what he says. Oh well. We’ve done what we came here to do. We’ll be off once again.

Nihm seems a bit tired, and almost has Raharjo drive right into a rock. He swerves, and dings the axle…

We continue on, and a couple of Dragonborn salute us as we check in on them. They’re okay, but they need fire. They also give us a message, containing a ring.

So, off we go to get these draconian gentlemen some fire. We drive the long way around to the camp and park, choosing to not destroy the jeep any further.

We get to the ammo dump…and these guys look like they’ve got roots in their hands!

I shout, “These guys are rooted!” Not a second after, Raharjo does the same and snatches up a flaming stick as I miss one with a crossbow bolt. Another picks up a grenade and tosses it. Somehow, the shrapnel avoids both me and Ricky, but Raharjo takes a bit of it.

I get up and run, putting another crossbow bolt into it. It doesn’t seem to do much, but I might at least draw its attention. I do get my wish as another burst of flame comes my way, and I get away with not getting hit- just as another grenade gets lobbed! I try to snatch Raharjo out of the way, but instead I place him in front of me as he takes most of the damage.

And that’s when I hear it: There’s a lot more combat going on, and I get the idea that there’s a lot more combat going on- we’ve been flanked!I separate from Raharjo, further getting this guy’s attention and I hope that Raharjo has better luck. I can’t quite see what Ricky is doing, but it’s not well. I can hear gunfire going on way over there. I get a little cocky, and I get a little burnt, too, as the flamethrower guy totally sets me on burning, stinging fire. With all the fire in my eyes, I completely miss putting another crossbow bolt into him. The guy points his gun towards the munitions wagon, and Raharjo springs forward, making sure that the stream of fire goes straight up instead of into the ammunition.

The purple light flickers back on, and we gain the advantage.

“Can you direct us to the front lines?” one of the purple lights says, "I believe that we’re

expected there." And one of them begins to sing?

We direct them forward, and they give us fiery enhancement. Either way, we gather them up in a pincer movement and take ’em out!

I feel a bit charred, but I’m alive, and so are we all. Thanks to Raharjo’s quick thinking, the

in which many things were set on fire and blown up

After playing messenger a bit, we helped Eva set up his mobile (and likely highly dangerous) nexus point. Our job is to keep the enemy away from Eva so he can do his job. Here I was starting to delude myself into thinking this would be easy, when a pack of bushes come charging at us.

I took a shot from a distance, as did Kam, while Ricky closed with them and dealt with them up close.

I think battle fatigue must be setting in, because I’m starting to have a hard time concentrating on the details, and most of my comrades’ words fade out of focus, along with the sounds of battle. Yet I feel lucid for now; if nobody asks me to think too deeply, I think I will be fine. Everyone seems to be doing their jobs well.

A distinct scent of ether prevails throughout.

Hmm. Right, back to business. Necklace. This necklace was important. The jewels come right off though. Do I throw them? That sounds right. Well, playing baseball was always fun.

Wow. Fireballs. Useful.

Now the catgirl is ranting on and on like a preacher at a revival meeting. It’s more blood and guts than fire and brimstone though, so it works.

Not as sure about my lucidity anymore…

I hope this is a fever dream. Ricky looks like he has two large mouth shaped holes in him.

Whoops. There goes the other gem. Why couldn’t have been this good of a pitcher back in school? At least this one helped even the odds more. Kam is a vicious shot. I would not want to be that tree. Ricky throws half a dozen haymakers at the tree trying to get past him, and it disappears a puff of woodchips.

Eva’s glowing purple now. I hope this is all part of the plan.

I think it worked. I shot at another one and the entry wound flashed like the powder pan on grandpa’s old hunting rifle. Ricky knocks the one in front of him a hard one. A hard right straight, a lightning left hook, and a burning uppercut. Jareth, Kam, and Ricky go to search the woods to make sure nothing else is lurking about. Eva keeps on glowing until a purple light shoots out of his mouth straight into the sky. Kind of pretty. Also looks kind of dangerous.

We go back to HQ. On the way, we spot Coryn leading a bunch of Eld with bazookas. That’s terrifying. It’s also very like him. Tasya’s pleased with the outcome of our mission and sends support back to Eva.

Night is coming on, and we’re about empty of fire spells and abilities, so Tasya sends us out to get necklaces of fireballs and six vials of alchemist’s fire. We get news of a flanking maneuver coming up from behind our lines. We go out to intercept the bastards. Long story short, we run right through our fire gear and ammo, and the reserves find us lighting up our smokes on top of a pile of dead plants.

I’m starting to feel like I missed my calling in life as a lumberjack.

The battle goes on for another two hours before the purple lights go off. I hope that’s only Eva getting tired.

Not really sure about this...

All right, so we got all of our stuff, and I’m wearing a backpack full of pitch. I’m not sure why, but I’m pretty sure I had something to do with this. We have our battle plan, we have our equipment, and we know what we have to do- though Cam looks at me like she wants to kill me.

Fair enough. I did get us all into this mess.

On our way out towards the enemy line, we stop by the lake and make sure that there are no tree people in it, but when Nihm gets there, she sees nothing. We continue on, and we do find a bunch of wavy bushes- but there’s no breeze. We stash the Jeep and hike around the bushes, and we come across the thicket. Raharjo goes over the plan. Those bushes advance on us quickly, and we book it back to the jeep. Raharjo guns the engine, and we get down and start this mad experiment.

We set the lines down, and now we’re doubling back- and I nearly fall off. Thanks to Cam I don’t fall off the Jeep, but if there’s a retreat, I tell them to leave me- I have alternate means, after all. Cam tosses the Alchemist’s Fire, lighting it up.

We watch the line light up…and I’m a little disappointed. They just keep running through the fire, and they keep going. Damn it. But they’re affected just a little bit, and that might be good enough for me. I think we can do this. I tell Raharjo to take us back, and I’ll drink my potions (of Ant Haul and Fly), and get this thing started. I take the barrel, Nihm gets on my shoulder, and we’re going after these bushy bastards. Cam goes with me, leaving Raharjo and Ricky in the Jeep.

In the air, we fly towards the front, only to have the Jeep that Raharjo is driving ride on up and he tosses his bottle of fire. It lights up a few of them, and he pulls a U turn and rides away. We drop pitch and fire on these guys, and they just keep coming. I manage to put a spin on a bottle of fire myself, and it collides with several of its flying pitched brothers, and setting them aflame. They fall into their less mobile brothers on the ground, setting them on fire, too. We’re being set upon by the other flyers.

Bring ’em.

We’re all getting swarmed, and I sound a retreat. We’re pretty banged up, but I’m pretty sure we can make this. We fly towards the outer line of these guys, the flying bushes chasing us all the while. These are stinging little guys, to be sure, but we’re okay. Well, I don’t feel very good, but I’ve still got some hope here. We do see Raharjo and Ricky cut around and keep pace with the charging bushes I think about the Jeep feather token in my pocket, and see the tree line (ha ha) fast approaching. I think we can do this.

Suddenly, Cam drops that pearly acid thing, and then drinks a potion and vanishes. Good. We’re still being swarmed, and Nihm begins using her fire claws on the closer ones, and they start smoking. They catch fire, and spiral down into that moving thicket.

All I can do for the moment is hold Nihm and keep moving, and that’s what I do. I can see the bare part of the hill not far away, and I’m hoping I make it out of this, even as I feel this poison working into my system. I’m feeling a little woozy, though, and the Jeep is getting closer. I think we’ll be okay. Cam descends into the Jeep below us, and we’re not far behind. We drop, but we’re still covered in these bushes! The important thing, we’ve done our job, and now I’m hoping that we can beat a hasty retreat and get away from these monstrosities. They’re everywhere though, and it’s not looking good (or, it could just be all the blood in my eyes). I hear gunfire, screaming, and swatting, and the engine of the Jeep roaring to life. We’re back to bouncing around in the vehicle. Nihm takes a bounce dangerously close towards the outside of the Jeep, and I grab her by the tail to keep her from completely. She retreats under the seat of the Jeep (good move), freeing me up to activate my Healing Belt and draw my dagger. I hope that these bushes get clear after Ricky pours on some more speed.

There’s another bump, and these things are just stinging the dickens out of me—-

—And suddenly, someone is slapping me, and I feel a little bit better. Nihm uses some kind of kit to open my veins and take the poison out. Raharjo fist bumps me, and I’m better still. I feel like death warmed over, but I just might make it.

I thank everyone for saving my life, but I don’t think this snafu qualifies me to be the leader. Nihm tells me that this is war, and we can’t always expect a smashing success. It’s okay, though. I’m pretty sure I’m gonna get busted down to grunt, and I don’t think I’d mind that.

In the meantime, I’m in the infirmary, and I’ll feel a little bit better afterwards. I’m pretty woozy, but after twenty minutes I feel right as rain. They give us a potion of lesser restoration, and everyone looks right at me- so I take it.

A young Kald boy tells us to report for duty, and that’s what we do. Atasia tells us that we’re on delivery duty! We’re to deliver some parts to the graveyard, and Eva greets us. They’re building some kind of machine, and he asks for some help. Well of course, they’re needing our help, but we do have other orders.

Death on the petals of daisies

By the time we reach Zarhun, we’re barely awake. The good news is that there seems to be no signs of battle. Looks like we made it ahead of the killer plant …things. Our jeep is almost out of gas, and this town doesn’t exactly have a gas station where we can fill up. I really don’t want to have to hoof it. The Garrison is our first stop. We arrive at the gates Raharjo begins to SLOWLY tell the guard that there is an army on their way.

“Oh my god, why didn’t you ask to speak to the commander right away!? he screams.

“Um, can we speak to-”

“Oh for the love of… go, GO!”

We head toward the Commander’s post. The guard at the door sullenly asks for Raharjo’s name and rank. Once the information is supplied, the guard wipes his nose and mumbles something like ‘…oh. Those guys. Okay, go on in I guess.’

Raharjo begins to, once again slowly, tell the Commander about what went on and then finally tells her that there is an army of hundreds of plant monsters on their way. She doesn’t exactly look convinced, but we finally manage to get it through to her that we are in fact very serious.

We are given emergency ration gas and told to try and find an army division that passed through town three days ago. It is decided that Ricky will drive since he doesn’t need to sleep and we very obviously do. We head over to the Monastery first. It only takes about thirty minutes to get there and all the ‘little Ricky’s’ stare at us as we drive by. We pull into the middle of camp and begin our search for Tasia and ‘upload’ the latest information. He doesn’t say much, just kind of looks at us and a couple of other Eld come over, and then leave again. As we get ready to leave we notice that a lot of the Eld are …changing out limbs?! O_O It’s sort of macabre and yet I can’t look away. I look at my own arms and try to imagine what it would be like to have a gun instead of an arm. I suddenly find myself with vague images of a spiky haired guy and a large sword… I shake my head. I must be more tired than I realized.

Ricky drives us through the night narrowly avoiding potholes and roots and we notice that there are trampled sections of the road. It definitely looks like an army recently marched through here. We thought perhaps we should try to get some sleep. ‘Try’ being the key word. Ricky has never driven before and though as a Eld, he picked up the basics fairly quickly, he doesn’t yet understand some of the finesse it takes to drive without jarring the less Eld occupants of the vehicle. It is very early in the morning when we wake and Jareth figures that the army division is about a half a day’s march ahead of us. We should reach them in almost no time.

Jareth has the brilliant idea to get on the radio to try and convince them to stop marching so that we can catch up faster. However,we don’t exactly have a code book, or know any codes with in which to comminucate our intentions.He somehow manages to convince them to stay put and that we should reach them in about an hour. We arrive even sooner. It only took about fourty-five minutes to reach them and we are met by a few mounted men. Raharjo gives them a note from the Commander, and they go back to the group and then return with a General. We give him all the info we have, which is admittedly not much, and he starts to command everyone to unload exactly what might be needed for the upcoming ‘battle’. A lot of stuff is going to be left behind and there will be a contingent of men to guard the supplies and everthing else left behind. Trucks are unloaded of gear and reloaded with men. Our jeep is laden down with many supplies and the drive back to Zarhun begins.

On the way we look through a bag of items and divvy up some healing belts, armor, and other items of maiming and exploding. This is going to get ugly and I’m surely going to die. Better to try and take out as many of the enemy as I can.

As we reach Zarhun we can see that the fortified castle and the hill behind it have essentially become a military headquarters. A group of sentries meets us and leads us to the would be front lines. It doesn’t yet look like anything has attacked so that’s a good sign so far. The men we brought back with us are exhausted. We are set out to help set up camps/tents/barracks so the soldiers in the trucks can hopefully get a few hours of much needed rest.

we get near to finishing and a young half kald boy comes to us and says that we are needed at HQ. He looks excited and self important and salutes with much enthusiasm. It’s a strategy meeting.

Jareth, the bastard that he is, bluffed his way into convincing that we could bottleneck the oppostion and then we would go behind them and somehow get them that way.

The meeting is adjourned and we will report back here either in six hours or when scouts return with news. Tasia pulls us aside and tries to ask in depth what our exact plans are. Jareth tells him that he wants to get some gas to drop onto the plant things while I myself use a flying potion to rain down fire on them. He really has no idea. I can’t do much more than look on in horror. It’s the only plan we have and I may have said it before, but I’m going to die. We’re all going to die. And I’m going to kill Jareth when this is all over if he isn’t dead already.

Learning the ways of the Eld...the hard way.

So we’ve learned how to manipulate this aether, and we’ve been told that we are the first people to do so. It’s an amazing process, really- it’s the ability to share a combat experience, and make each other better by sacrificing a little bit of our own ability to aid someone else’s.

We’ve spent a little bit better than a month learning this stuff, and I’m not sure if there’s any more we can learn here. At any rate, the fearless Eld leader receives a message from a chipmunk, and it seems pretty dire. Apparently, there’s an Eld who hasn’t been heard from in quite a while who might be causing trouble. There’s a lot of technobabble here that I don’t really understand, but apparently this guy destroyed a quarter of the Kaldan army. The basic idea I’m getting is that this guy is missing but might still be alive. Perhaps these Eld need our help?

It looks like that’s going to be the mission: To maybe find this guy and his odd power source. We might only need to be pointed in the right direction. We also get some supplies from HQ, and I have five dried out vines called tunnel creepers, and a wand of fly with 10 charges on it.

So, we set off on our mission. Along the way, we begin to see burnt out patches of land, well contained and well planned. At the center of the char is a plant or a bush that someone has put there.

Knowing that we’re in enemy territory, we get ready for trouble, sneaking around as quietly as we can. Nihm takes to the trees and has no better luck. We take our time picking through the brush to make sure we don’t screw this up.

And speaking of that, Nihm falls out of the tree, with a bunch of bushes flying at her. I see them out of the corner of my eye, only to see more incoming. I try a crossbow bolt; it goes right through. I see Nihm drop down and squash a fire with a sleeping skin, and I see that Raharjo does the same. Our new Eld, Ricky, fires a frosty bullet at the swarm of bush-like creatures, and gets swarmed. I shoulder the crossbow, and get one of my leather blankets ready, only to have Nihm jump out of the tree with one. Raharjo tries something similar- I think- and falls down and hits a tree on the way down. Ricky continues to be swarmed. I ready the blanket and toss, snatching only one of those bushy little bastards up. I hold on for dear life, not knowing what to expect.

Nihm takes another swipe, and Raharjo continues to roll around on the ground like a crazy person. I don’t know if he’s trying to put the fire out or if he’s having a seizure- but it works. The fire is out around him, and I hope he didn’t get burned too badly. Ricky does some kind of funny little dance, and the flying bushes swarm over Nihm. I try to smash the bag I have into the others, only to almost dash Nihm right in the skull with it. Nihm doesn’t smash the others either, and Raharjo stands up, having put out all the fires. Ricky is still doing the spider dance, and I completely miss the swarm attacking Nihm’s face (which is good for my well-being). Nihm finally finishes them off though, and Raharjo looks like he’s going to try to put the fire out, along with Ricky. He’s done about that, and I take the bag of bush and try to bash it.

It stops moving- and starts again! I show everyone else this, and I’m not sure that they know what to do with it. Nihm takes a closer look, and she looks like she may have an idea brewing in her head. Like we’ve observed, fire kills it, and we just set the tent on fire. Nihm also tells me that she fixed my pants- and I tell her that I had thought that the Pants Fairy had fixed them. She climbs off of me and onto Ricky, pouting. I just thought she didn’t like me.

Anyway, we forge ahead, and come across a badgermole hole, and Tecouny. We try to get his attention, but he isn’t very receptive. Nihm climbs on him and begins digging into the bark-like substance of his flesh, but doesn’t seem like she’s making much progress. She somehow gets ejected off the guy’s body, and the tree person strikes her with his club. We spring into action.

Nihm climbs the guy, and I rush forward with my crossbow. He laughs, speaking in Eldish, and bursts into flame, catching Nihm on fire as well. Ricky is quick to grab her and put her out- but by that time, the druid is ash. I’m not sure what was going on, but it’s perfectly clear that whatever he had to say to us, he’ll take it to his grave.

Ricky does know what the tree-person said in Eldish, and he is led to believe that some outside force took over the druid’s body. Nihm sifts through this guy’s ashes, but there’s nothing much for me to do here. She does happen to find a rune on his quarterstaff, and Ricky understands that the rune means “Sessation”, which may belong to the crazy Eld that killed all those Kald a few years ago. Whether it’s purely by chance or by design is in question, but I don’t believe in coincidences. Raharjo notes that the nearby cave could be his lair, and we decide to go in.

Inside, we see roots poking through the walls, and Nihm seems to think that they may not be Deathroots. Nihm mumbles something, and runs out of the cave. I focus more on the branches. Not that I’m an expert on Deathroot, but I think she’s right. I turn and look, and she’s still scampering around outside. However, inside we don’t find anything at all.

I argue with Nihm about tossing the staff, and Raharjo thinks we should take it out to a field and burn it (I like that idea, by the way). I do see everyone moving forward, and that’s when I discover that there’s a rune on the wall- how could I have missed it before?

In the portal, we do hear movement, but we can’t figure out where all that movement is coming from, but it seems like Raharjo has a bad feeling about this. The dirt beneath our boots become mud, perhaps moving over pebbles. We hear a loud rustling behind us, and whirl around, seeing nothing. When we turn back, we notice our exit is gone, and we see a hole in the ceiling. Looking up, we see an Eld- perhaps the one we’re looking for?

He says something in Eldish, but I don’t understand it. I think we all look at Ricky, who just stands there like a bump on a log. Eventually, we do get his answer: The vines in this pit of death turn really sharp, and shoot up from the ground and try to kill us.

I don’t understand- this guy is a robot; how can he command plants?! A moot point, and I see Raharjo dash out of the way. Raharjo is trying to reason with him, and I think the we might be able to salvage this situation. I’m too busy trying to dodge spikes to say anything, but I’m seeing a clear path out, and I’m pretty sure I can take a chance and roll out of this mess.

Meanwhile, Arya casts a spell- a robot! Casting a spell!- and a creature that looks like a human made out of tree roots appears right in front of us, and heads for Raharjo. It attacks, and misses trying to hit Raharjo. Nihm flips and rolls, and I think she might be telepathic- or just desperate enough to try a daring escape. I can hear her trying to talk to this guy, and I’m really hoping that this is going to work- considering that everyone else is talking to it. I nimbly dash out, but I think I’m a little shaken from the tumble and stumble over my words. We are soldiers, and we are trying to put an end to the Eld, and that he should hear us out.

I’m pretty sure we’re making progress- which is when the Eld attacks, it takes me by surprise. It shouldn’t have, though. This guy started off trying to kill us, and there might have been very little chance of actually succeeding. Oh well…time to draw the weapons.

He goes after Raharjo, and appears to have some martial arts training. Arya roundhouse kicks Raharjo and suddenly our guy sprouts a bunch of quills or thorns- I can’t tell which. Nihm runs over to the wall and sets the whole place on fire, and I get the trusty crossbow ready. I fire, and strike home. Ricky climbed up to face Arya directly, and they seem to be fighting. We’re all stuck down here fighting the replica, and I think that’s where I’ll change my strategy. Raharjo looks like he might be in trouble, and he’s being quite defensive, taking a step backwards while trying to take a shot at this guy. He misses. I hear the shot, but I don’t know where it landed.

The thing that looks like Arya strikes out at Raharjo, who sort of gets lucky there. The eye that’s trained on the real Arya turns into some kind of giant bear, and charges towards Ricky, and fails. This is getting ridiculous! The fire spreads, and I tell Nihm to stop trying to kill us, and try to find us a way out! Instead, she tries to grab a flaming vine, and gets the business end of it.

“Why don’t you stop trying to kill us and find us a way out of here!” I scream at Nihm.

“You’re the one with the Wand of Fly!” she yells back at me.

Needless to say, I facepalm. I know she’s right, and I know I should’ve thought of that sooner- but there’s no time for that. I fly towards Nihm and yell, “Do you know how to use this?!”

“Uh, doy,” she replies, very mocking of me. Whatever.

“Get Raharjo out of here,” I say, wanting no more of her insolence. I fly out of the hole, and see Ricky and Arya still engaged in combat.

I can still see Raharjo engaged with the smaller, faker Arya, and he looks like he might be losing. I know we’ve got to take this guy out and fast- or we all might not make it out of here alive. Above, I see Arya’s new bearclaws digging into Ricky’s metal body. This is very strange, a bear with an odd root exoskeleton. I see Nihm make her move; she can fly. However, I can’t wait any longer, and I take a shot at Arya that just bounces off of his root exoskeleton. I drop the heavy crossbow and fly up behind the bear, hoping I’m not doing something supremely stupid. I think he’s about to turn, and Ricky assaults Arya, covering for me.

A moment later I see Nihm fly out of the hole, with Raharjo close behind. Just ahead of me, I see a strange bear-creature stamping the ground like a crazy person. I ask Ricky quickly if he thinks we can salvage this, but I’m not convinced. I plunge the dagger into his armored hide, and I think Ricky is trying to talk to him. Arya screams out a name that I recognize as Kaldan- Alach- and I see that he’s fully enraged now. That’s good, in a way- no more half measures. Ricky thinks we can destroy the body and remove his core, and we’ll try that. This thing tried to hurt what I’ve come to accept as my people, and I’m not about to let it get away with that.
Out of the corner of my eye I see Raharjo fly out of the pit, and the Arya copy flies up next up the rifleman. My concentration lapses, and the big bear slashes at me. The claws are sharp and they shred my skin. The blow takes away most of my energy, and I’m feeling pretty lethargic now.

I see Nihm fly around and try to grapple the carapaced bear, and I think she’s going to get the worst end of this raging robot-bear-thing. She doesn’t have a chance, but like a good trooper, she tries anyway. She’s talking, but I’m not sure that he hears her. I don’t think I’m making the right decision, but I do try to talk the bear down. He seems less crazy and more despondent, while Ricky also tries to help us hug it out. Amazingly, it seems to work…and Ricky seems to be vibrating?

Raharjo tries to lure the mini-Arya away, and it works; it poofs out of existence. I think Arya is crying and mumbling. At least Ricky knows what the strange Eld is saying, but I do wonder aloud if they can feel love. Certainly, it looks like Arya is feeling something. Ricky is sure he’s experiencing some kind of critical failure, but I’m not sure what’s going on in full. He might just be crazy, and he sighs out that name again, and shudders one last time.

I’m pretty sure that Arya is dead.

Ricky reaches into the Eld- presumably to snatch out his core- and the shiny diamond inside shatters into three different pieces. Nihm seems to think that this Eld had a broken heart, but I think that may be too…simplistic an opinion. We need to know what Arya knew; he was willing to visit destruction on an entire race because of this! He said he wanted to save someone named Jaen and doing away with someone named Alec.

It becomes clear that we’ve got to find out why Arya was trying to do all this before whatever reinforcements he called reaches the villagers. I’m not sure what’s going on, but we haven’t time to go all the way back to the monastery.

Nihm has the idea to use our fly charges to get out of the thickest part of the forest, and it’s a good one. We take that, and we do get out of the forest in record time- but come across the type of devastation that could only be a lot of people with little regard for their tracks. Nihm is sure that somehow her foot is telling her how to get ahead of this army (I guess).

We follow Nihm’s foot to a track wide enough to accommodate a vehicle- and Nihm is not a graceful winner. I tell her to throw the Jeep down and the feather token turns into a land vehicle with a full tank of gas. We hop in the Jeep, and take off.

It doesn’t seem very hard; operating the vehicle is pretty easy. Everyone rests while I drive. Not far ahead, I see the town of Zerhune…and I hope that we’re not too late.

Fleshies (and furries) in the Temple

I do not yet know why writers of log entries traditionally address their log files directly, but it seems customary, so I shall do so! The current solar cycle has proven quite interesting. Apparently, I have arrived at the monastery just in advance of a herd (proper term? Flock? Gaggle?) of fleshy-bots. And one furry-bot (new term!). They have just arrived, and met with :unit designation: “Eva”. Eva welcomed the guests, and introduced them to Soha and Mao Myo Renge Kyo. Fleshy-bot “Coryn” soon left for individualized “debugging and reformatting”. I was formally introduced to the group, and it was explained to me that I would be joining them. I find this agreeable. These fleshies seem quite interesting, and I am already learning very much!

Soha initialized a training program for the fleshies. Strangely, they did not know how to make use of their safe mode! What an amazing thing! Such interesting beings they are. In some ways, fleshies are much more resilient and easily upgraded than Eld, yet in other ways it is incredibly difficult for them to upgrade. They seem to have the most problems with hardware. “Hardware” in this case seems to be something of a misnomer, as the fleshies themselves are quite soft. I have discovered that some of them possess additional hardware features called “breasts” that act, in some obscure fashion, as external batteries. I wish to learn more about breasts, as my passive biometric scan of the fleshies indicates a 79% probability that there are additional layers of meaning to which I am currently unaware. The fleshy-bot called “Kam” has a pair that protrude numerous centimeters beyond her torso proper. Manipulating them is apparently quite tricky. Perhaps they do not know how to properly calibrate them? Unknown. I shall ask. Also, furry-bot “Nihm” has multiple, smaller, exterior squishy batteries. Perhaps this is more efficient by facilitating multiple connections? I digress. There is so much to process!

Getting a little...catty.

Yeah! We’re finally leaving the swamp. I was getting very tired of the muck getting between my toes and gettinhg stuck on my fur. I don’t mind baths but-

Whoa, what was that?! A bush just moved. I think we should kill it. Coryn points a gun at it and tells it to state its business. But upon closer inspection, I don’t think it’s a bush. I think that it might be a part of the skunk family.

I tell them that that we should leave it alone. Jarenth argues with me. As we watch it starts tilting over on it’s side. Once again Coryn demands that it explain itself. Then we see that it looks like its corrupted with the same roots that almost killed me. Coryn sees it and immediately uses his flame thrower. And now that it is dead, it appears that Coryn has set a forest fire. Jarneth, Kam and I attempt to put the flames out. I would never let a forest fire take control. Luckily, we managed to put the fire out.

Coryn is getting dirty looks from everyone, but standing his ground that the bush deserved. We stop at the lake to wash off. Luckily we now no longer smell of smoke. We decide that this is a good place to camp for the night. I head up into the trees to find a nice comforable place to sleep. Coryn is sleeping during first watch. Kam, Jarneth and I are taking first watch.

There are a few more dirty looks towards Coryn. I’m trying to keep my inner peace, but sometimes he makes it hard. Now after he’s supposed to be sleeping, he wakes bolt upright and heads for the coffee. I think he might be having another nightmare.

I go to give him some comfort. It takes him a while to relax. Ok, so he doesn’t. I have to try something a little more drastic. I lie across his lap and purr. He gets alarmed and asks if I really have to vibrate there. It gets a little uncomfortable. But, I’ve seen this reaction before. Poor guy. Ok. So after that, I do feel a little dirty, but I’m pretty sure despite his outburst of not dating outside his species, he should be relaxing a little.

He actually asks if I like him. Not knowing what to say, I pause. For a while. Then say, “Yes?”

But he still looks pensive so I decide to spend the rest of my watch and his watching over him. And now I’m beat. But that’s ok. Kam’s shoulder is always comfortable. And it has the added bonus of being out in the sunshine.

The day is uneventful with the exception of a dragonborn merchant train. They seem pretty snooty so Jarenth gives them the queen wave. I would have liked to give them a one finger wave, but that would not be nice, and I’m trying to be nice.

Now that we’re down for sleep, we get a thunder shower. And once we wake up the winds are blowing viciously. So between the wind, the mud, and the rain I almost feel like we’reback in the marsh. Minus the blistering heat. Riharjo tries to be cheerful, but I just want him to shut up and leave me to my misery. But Riharjo reminds us that we’re going to learn how to be spies and more useful to the war effort.

Now during watch, I can see Coryn having another dream. I wonder if I should go and wake him up. Before he gets violent. And reaches for his flamethrower. I worry about the disagreeable guy. But he’s kind of like one of those kids from my forest. You know the kind. They don’t fit in. They’re kind of slow and hairless. You just have to watch over them lest they hurt themselves.

Coryn wakes up shaky, sweaty and disturbed. I guess the war is really getting to him. I know that it must be when he says he doesn’t want to shoot anyone. He starts gathering his things as if he’s moving out. So I do what needs to be done.

At first I just lay on his stuff, then I give him a hug. Jarenth comes over and gives both of us a hug. But Coryn freaks out. He goes on a rant and seems convinced that he’s going to kill us or get us killed.

I ask Jarenth if I can talk to Coryn. He agrees and decides that he wants to give Kam a hug. She refuses, but resigns herself to a fist bump.

I decide that I need to be honest with him. Maybe it will help if he knows what I’m going through. I tell him these things to see if it will help him, not because I particularly want to talk about it.

I have to watch him closely because I don’t want to make things worse. I try and remember when I noticed his bad dreams starting. It seems that they started the day after I woke up.

We have a rather intense conversation in which Coryn screams out that he’s murdered his parents. But he doesn’t know why he’s killed them. I can only guess that they did something bad. But I don’t fear him. I trust him.

Riharjo only wakes up to Coryns confession and spends the rest of the day casting nervous glances around. We convince Coryn to at least get to the eld before making any serious decisions. He makes me promise that if he ever wakes up with blood on his hands that I will put him down. I promise and we move on.

We come to a new town that looks more like a military post filled with Kald. I keep twitching and reminding myself that not all of the Kald are evil. They keep talking about telling the eld that we don’t have any ports. Im not a sailor. It shouldn’t be a problem. So we head up the path carrying about thirty pounds of ore that the Kald wanted us to deliver to them.

Eventurally we come to a gateway into an openn courtyard. There is a strange looking eld standing in the middle of the courtyard. He’s fairly seamless with a huge sword arm. He introduces himself. Then he starts freaking poor Coryn out. Coryn starts looking himself over looking for vines and viruses.

Irritated at his superior attitude I have to introduce myself. In best Eld standard. I am NihmQuillofthegreatforestsofthegreatQuatarsoldieragainsttheKaldarmy.

He seems impressed. My work here is done. Although Kam appears irritated.

We come into another courtyard where there are a group of creepy looking eld. We meet the leader who calls himself Tausia.

He seems to be graceful towards us at least. He explains why we’re here. He tells us that the Kald were actually rather peaceful if anally organized people. He doesn’t seem to understand why they are so aggressive now. He keeps staring at Coryn and muttering about debugging. But then he isn’t the only one. It’s starting to look a little worrisome.

Now we get introduced to Soha. I don’t think I like this Soha. If someone calls me a fleshy one more time I’m going to get angry. I’m not a fleshy. I’m a furry. Then he demands that Coryn come with him. He says that a Kalden virus has hold of him. It makes sense in kind way. With the way that Coryn has been acting. He says he’s going to help him and it only sort of makes sense, maybe Soha will help him.

Coryn yells out loud that he doesn’t have bugs.

Tausia tells him that he can help him without making him suffer. I tell him I’ll stay near him so that he won’t be alone. Finally he agrees. Tausia suggests that we get a good night’s sleep, but considering his nightmares, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Getting my meaning when I shake my head, he says they can start tonight.

Kam and the others are offered raw food. Kam asks for wood for a fire. They lead her to a bunch of green saplings. She goes looking for some dry wood and has to steal it from an old beaver dam. Kam looks highly irritated when after spending a couple of minutes with a flint to light the fire, he extends a finger like a lighter.

In the meantime, Coryn and I are led back to Soha. I try to lead him to the circle thinking that they’re going to deal with Coryn. Instead he gets a weird look on his face and starts asking me strange questions. Luckily he turns back to Coryn.

I try to get Coryn to relax by purring. It doesn’t seem to help, so I do the only thing that I can think of to get him to relax. I punch him in the gut. After about six hours, Coryn seems to relax more than I’ve seen him in weeks.

Soha says that he needs to work with Coryn alone for the next few weeks. After some distrust, Coryn agrees. Next thing we know, the cat comes back.

I think it’s time for me to exit stage left. Coryn goes with the cat. Next thing I know, Coryn disappears. I become upset because I just thought they were going to walk a little ways away.

I become a little snarly, but Effa says that he will help me watch over Coryn from afar. I’m not sure that I trust it, but it’s the best I can do for now. I have no choice but to agree. GRRR.

We end up eating veggies. Soha is standing over us when we all wake up two hours later. He has given our training deep thought. I know he is trying to help us, but somehow it comes out that we’re the doopy children born backwards with our heads stuck inside for too long without air. I was NOT born backwards. And I don’t like to talk about the other. So we’ll see how this training goes.

featuring fire beetles, awkward situations, and dead dragons

After a good day of traveling, we spotted the village of Habe in the distance. At first this seemed like a great time to get a bit of rest and buy equipment, but we were disconcerted when we saw that the village was about two thirds Kald. However, Jareth reassured us that this place isn’t under the control of the Kald and that most of the people here are misfits and that the Kaldan Empire doesn’t really care about this patch of country.

We were approached by a militia unit, which was worrying, though they turned out to be wearing the uniforms of the Nuthellan army. It was a mixed unit too, which was interesting; I don’t think I’ve ever seen Kalds, Stonekin, Dragonborn, and humans all in the same unit. The commander, who introduced herself as Agate XXIII, asked us if we were under orders or if we were just passing through. At first we said we were just passing through, but it rapidly occurred to us that we were wearing army uniforms ourselves, and we would look like deserters if we didn’t give a good explanation of ourselves. Jareth handed her Verman’s letter, and she seemed impressed, and sent us on our way. The whole thing got really awkward with Nihm, though; she started growling and her tail began to twitch the minute she saw Kalds once we got in sight of the town. Coryn had given her a ball of yarn to keep her occupied, though even that wound up getting awkward. She’d gotten all tangled up and asked someone to cut her loose. Agate XXIII sent one of her adjutants (a young Kald) to do it, and Nihm’s tail went bottle-brushy. The poor kid looked terrified out of his mind.

We wound up spending the night at the town’s inn. During my watch, that Kaldan kid came up trying to be all silent-like. He had a note in his hand, and stammered “give this to the kitty” and ran off. He’s a good kid. I hope he doesn’t die an ignoble death.

I gave it to Nihm when everyone woke up. She seemed genuinely touched by it, and went out to find him to thank him; I think his name was Schumacher. She came back looking fairly happy; she’d talked to him, it had gone well, and apparently had found some milk. She seems to have had a bit of a breakthrough, or perhaps a religious experience; apparently she has been told by her ancestors that she’s supposed to defeat the Kald without hating.

On our way out of town, we ran into a troop of guards from Habe carrying back a dead fire beetle. There were some more questions about who we were, and we told them that Agate XXIII had already spoken to us and let them have a look at our orders again. Coryn showed some interest in the fire beetle, and wanted to try and get its poison sack out, but it wound up being impractical for some reason, and so we wound up just moving on.

The next day, Jareth had a pants malfunction while on the road. His buttons wound up bursting, and for the rest of the day he had to walk holding up his pants with one hand. None of the rest of us were able to do anything about it at the time, and none of us knew how to sew, so we went to sleep as usual.

All went normally until something very bizarre and disturbing happened during the night. During my and Coryn’s watch, we noticed Nihm crawl into Jareth’s bedroll. That was weird enough, because even if Nihm’s been acting a lot nicer lately, I still wouldn’t expect her to start cuddling up to Jareth like a housecat. Surprise and mystification turned to shock and horror when she crawled all the way into the bedroll, and her head began bobbing up and down. My jaw landed somewhere in the Underdark. I eventually managed to turn to look at Coryn and asked, “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” All I heard in reply was “yeah.” I think her might have made some pithy comment like usual, but I was lost in the horror of the moment. Even though after a moment we were able to figure out what was probably going on, it was still horrifying to watch on account of what it looked like was going on.

Jareth woke up the next morning, greatly shocked to find that someone had fixed his pants while he had apparently been asleep in his bedroll. He asked what had happened, and we could only look at Nihm. The whole situation was very uncomfortable. Nihm was sputtering about how we were perverts, and Jareth was sputtering about the fact that Nihm had been next to his man parts. It was very bizarre.

A few days later, as we were traveling we heard a lot of noise coming from off the road. We were divided between whether we should go have a look, or if we should just keep on walking. Nihm clambered up a tree to have a look. When she came down, she said that she had spotted a dead black dragon a little ways into the woods, and that while she couldn’t see what was making the noise, something seemed to be eating it.

We ran off screaming like little girls after that. I don’t know what could kill a dragon and eat it, but I didn’t want to find out, and neither did anybody else apparently.

A few days after that, the heat wave finally broke, and the weather became cool and windy. It was a great relief to everybody; it’s about time it started feeling like autumn.

Day breaks and we start walking through the forest toward where the druid lives. Jareth decided that we should camp off the road for the night and Raharjo and Coryn took the first watch, Jareth and myself taking the second. I know that Nihm prefers to sleep in the trees so I decided that I would just tie her up to a branch and hang her little tent nest there safely off the ground.

About halfway through my watch, everyone in camp is completely startled when the sound of an assault rifle being shot rings through the trees. I myself jumped about three feet, Raharjo is woken out of a dead sleep in his magic roll and Coryn is sitting up very straight and stock still, holding his rifle.

“Are you okay?” Raharjo asks him.

“Is he dead?” Coryn asks as a reply.

“Is who dead?”

“…nevermind.” Coryn lays back down.

Raharjo wants to help him, try to find out what’s going on, but it’s decided that Coryn wouldn’t take any help offered. The Jerk. We tell him to be careful and to not sleep with his gun so close to him perhaps. Day breaks, everyone is ready to go, and no one mentions the events of the night before.

“Hail the travelers!”

We look around. A man comes up to us and wants to know what we’re doing, where we’re going. We try to explain to him that we’re looking for a guy to help Nihm and about the deathroot when all of a sudden a shimmer appears on the road ahead of us and a Dragonborn appears out of it. He comes over and asks about us encountering deathroot and asks to see her. He puts her gingerly on the ground, examines her wound muttering to himself in Drakonic. (It’s like he’s been following us or something)

He asks Coryn, who is walking about with his flamethrower, if he could make a useful fire with it. Coryn agrees and the Dragon guy takes some pine needles and performs some kind of acupuncture to try and find out what’s wrong. He decides that the effect is necromantic and that he might be able to wake her up. But he needs her to not move, else she will sever her chi connections, whatever that means. He takes a few of the pins out, placing a few others elsewhere.

“Oops…” He hastily places a pin back from where he took it from.

“What happened?” I growled.

“…nothing,” he quickly replies.

He asks us to help him slowly, but quickly remove the pins from her back.
She’s bleeding a bit from the pricks he’s created but she still hasn’t woken. We decided to toss water onto her to wake her up. It worked! I’m pretty sure that we’ve gone mostly deaf from the sudden screeching noises she’s making. Nothing looks or sounds more pathetic than a wet kitty.

She seems to be okay for the most part. The draconic guy starts to ask her if she feels okay, if she hurts anywhere and explains to her that she has a close encounter with deathroot. He asks where we’re going and we tell him that we’re heading to Zerhun, and asks that we send his regards to the Abbot there and tell him he’s looking into the deathroot problem. Gladly! Except I never caught the man’s name. Sure hope someone else did.

Before we head off, Raharjo asks the Draconic guy if he’s ever heard of mud people. He says in some legends yes, but not here on Harn. Raharjo explains to him that he met a bunch of them, how he tripped over a mud baby and how its people came looking for it. The draconic guy seemed to be very interested especially when we told him that the baby seemed to ‘eat’ the deathroot off of Raharjo’s hand without leaving any ill effects. As we take our leave, Nihm pats him on the head and crawls back up onto my shoulders where she apparently felt she belonged.

During watch that evenin Coryn hears a noise off the road that sounds kind of …clanky. He’s reminded of Alfy.

“Raharjo.”

“Yes?”

“I hear what sounds like a metal man coming down the road toward us.”

After about fifteen minutes or so, Coryn realizes that the sound isn’t coming any closer and goes to investigate. He finds an Eld sitting by a large rock and operating? on a spare arm. He appears

to not have any weapons near him. Coryn tries to stealth to get closer to him-

“Greeting Fleshling!” the Eld says. “Are you part of the group down the road?”

Coryn’s face drops. “Well, yes.”

“My name is Nefernefrvatenhebmun. You can call me Muny.”

Coryn scoffs internally. “You may call me Coryn.”

Coryn invites him to join our camp and Muny agrees, but with hesitation. He thinks he should hang back a bit until Coryn announces his presence so as not to make the rest of us skittish.

Coryn walks back to camp as quietly as a herd of stampeding elephants and wakes up Jareth. I apparently managed to sleep through everything Coryn starts talking. His timing couldn’t have been better. The magic on my bedroll had just worn off.

He states he found a robot and asks if he can bring him in. That as nice of him. Can’t even call the poor thing an Eld. We all agree and Coryn goes back to the ‘robot’ to lead him back to camp.

He introduces himself as Nefernefrvatenhebmun but that we may all call him Muny. He’s a traveling Storyman, apparently. His current story is about the root that inhabits human bodies, takes control of them and eventually kills them. Raharjo tells him that we know that story pretty well and Muny pumps us for information about the root. He offers to let us look through his bag in return for the story. We thought it best to look in the morning when there is better light.

Afterward, once he had pumped us for information, he goes to the edge of camp to not disturb the others who need rest. Nihm, who has yet to sleep goes, to him and tells him a story of her own about the great tree of life and how things are not going well. Muny allows her to look through his bag in return for her story. She agrees, but also wants to wait until morning.

When morning arrives, he starts rifling through his bag. Inside we learn there is a couple of prosthetic Eld limbs, a double barrel pistol, two cases of rifle ammo, a case of pistol ammo, a couple

of spell scrolls, some boots of stomping and a brooch of stability. He also has lots of gold. For her story, Nihm was awarded an item of her own, and decided to take some gold. The rest of us decide on a box of twenty rifle bullets. Before we leave, Nihm tells Muny another story about the emcampment that we all escaped from and how it burned down in a “BLAAAAAAAAAAAZE OF GLOOOOOOOOOOOORY!!!” She decides on the box of twenty pistol bullets as her reward. Can never go wrong with ammo. That stuff’s expensive.

Later, as Muny is walking down the road, the rest of us comment about what a weirdo he is and how we basically conned him out of some free stuff.

We come upon a roadside stand that appears to be a small blacksmithing station. Inside we find a portable blacksmith shop worked by a Stonekin. Nihm climbs onto a pole to watch him work and he

finally notices our presence. His name is Shist the XXXII and he has stuff for sale! He also seems to be very impressed when he finds out that we escaped from a prison camp. We learn from him that he wants to become an officer in the army so he can keep blacksmithing. But in order to do so, he needs money. Thus the portable station he has set up. Nihm inquires about how much he needs and then gives him the one hundred gold he needs. Shist…shits. He stutters asks us if there is anything we need. We decline. Still determined to pay us back somehow, he asks us our names and ranks and after a few minutes of some weird clinking sounds, he hands us all medallions with our names and ranks on them. These could come in handy for identification should we ever need it.

Shist explains to us why he wants to join the army; we learn that he has this awesome idea for a steam powered vehicle that could hold men inside. This vehicle would be armor plated and could be mounted with guns. Once he creates this formidable weapon, he says he’s going to name it Quill, in honor of Nihm.

We move on, due south and the forests have cleared away to rolling hills. We camp for the night. During the night, Nihm hears a peculiar sound. She looks around and finds that Coryn is crying in his sleep. She goes over to him, cuddles up next to him and calms him down enough to let him fall back asleep. She comes back over to Jareth and myself and says she’s going to be taking his watch. He apparently needs his rest. During this time, she makes breakfast for everyone! yay… grits. ….

During our travels that day, we find what looks like Muny’s camping spot. There are random brass cogs and wires littering the gound. Nothing really happens for a few days after that. We just do a lot of walking. Like a LOT of walking. My freaking feet are going to fall off, I’m sure. However, one night after about three days Coryn sees Nihm’s foot twitching while she’s sleeping. But it’s almost like something invisible is tugging on it. He goes over to investigate, lifts her foot up, looks under it and feels the ground below it, but there is nothing there. Nihm sleeps on seemingly oblivious. When it comes time for watch change, Coryn tells Nihm about her foot and hwat it was doing. She stares at it for a while but nothing happens. As we’re travelling the next day, Raharjo notices that Nihm’s foot keeps turning and leading her along the side of the road. Right as he’s about to say something, her foot turns her all the way around perpendicular to the road. There’s a track there.

“We should go this way,” says Nihm.

“Why?” asks Raharjo.

“There’s a track here,” she explains to him as a mother might explain to their child.

Raharjo looks on his map and realizes that Nihm is right. This is indeed the right way. We go that way and it meets up with another road. I can’t help but feel that were it not for Nihm’s wayward foot, we would get lost. And quickly. After about an hour we camp. That evening, Nihm and Jareth hear Coryn muttering in his sleep about stupid lizards and barbecue. Nihm laughs it off, but Jareth is kind of worried. Coryn wakes up the next morning feeling duly refreshed.

Again, we continue walking and come along a Harnesh with furs to sell. Nihm, being the generous soul she is, buys us some blankets to sleep with. We’re coming up on a swamp and they could come in pretty handy. However, as we get up the next morning, we realize that it’s as hot as the seven hells. ….go figure. Get some warm blankets and we don’t even need them now.

Making fun of dead people....?

It seems like I lost sight of Nihm, and that’s not a healthy thing. Frantically (yet casually so as not to cause alarm) I look around and find her, limply tangled amidst a giant tree overcome by the deluge. Nihm is not moving, but together we discover she’s alive, even as someone discovers that a root has taken…uh…root in her.

We have to rely on Raharjo’s expertise on the matter, but he seems to think that we can fix her. I’m not much good here, so I hang back while he and Coryn go to work on Nihm. It’s a process that would otherwise look quite painful- what with the fire and everything- but they seem to have confidence in their methods. They begin cutting her open and gingerly taking the roots out of her, burning them out after. At one of the last one, the odd mudbaby snatches out the last branch, and it forms a smile on the thing’s face before it eats the branch.

We discover that the last branch is actually grown into Nihm’s spine, and I feel quite sorry for her- well, before I remember all the misery she’s caused me. Coryn exposits that perhaps if Raharjo uses his hand, the host would know the difference between a viable host and a soon-to-be-dead one. We all wait with bated breath while we see if it works- and it does. It’s now in Raharjo’s finger now, and he starts to mildly panic. The mudbaby reaches for him, but it seems like it wants the branch inside Raharjo’s finger. Regardless, Cam seems to be offended there, and tries to grab the mudbaby.

And that’s when we see a hill forming out of the morass, and then it explodes. In its place are roughly human sized mud people. Raharjo tries to use his words on them, and Cam tries to set the baby in front of it.

Or rather, Cam gives the thing to me to do it! But, I don’t speak Mudpeople, so I improvise: I speak loudly and gesticulate grandly. Afterwards, the wailing baby is pacified, and the mudpeople take something out of it- an obsidian rock, rather- and tosses it at Raharjo. They leave, looking for something.

The traders come back and ask us what’s going on, but we scarcely know ourselves. But, we have to move on. Cam and Raharjo fuss over Nihm for a bit, before Cam straps her to her back. Then, we go. Of course, our “friends” aren’t nearly as happy to see us as they used to be. They don’t seem to like Coryn at all (something about making fun of them watching their friend die), and they don’t want us to make camp with their camp. Fair enough.

I take watch with Cam. We’re approached by one of them, with apologies- and warnings. This person believes that we’re not safe in the town ahead. It’s sound advice, and well heeded. I don’t like where this is going, but we’ve really no choice.

We leave early, trying to get to the town before the traders do, just so we can get some help for Nihm. We’re lucky, and we do get there about a day later. The doctor that we take her to cross examines Raharjo about R’s methods, and is pretty bent on blaming the Kald for this. I don’t know if it’s the Kald or something natural, but whatever it is, it’s quite harmful to us.

Regardless, we thank the man. He tells us that there’s no cleric around, and we wonder if there is one for safety’s sake. He tells us there’s a druid nearby, but that he’s late. We leave, but not before paying him in Crack Powder, because that stuff is in trouble anywhere.

We look around this place, and I recognize that I’m pretty penniless. I happen upon a woodcutter who needs some things delivered, and that I can keep the difference if I can up-sell this stuff. and I’m game.

Turns out, as a door to door salesman, I’m pretty good. It feels like an abuse of my skill, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I suppose if this whole soldiering thing doesn’t get me anywhere, I could sell appliances to people….

Always nice meeting new friends...under false pretenses.

The good news is, it’s not raining. The bad news? Mud. Everywhere. Something around here smells, too, and I’m not sure what it is. Maybe it’s all those dead bodies that we came across. I think I’ve got something on my boots.

Cam shouts something, that I miss, but I do see what she’s pointing at- some man-eating beast I think is called a Waver, and she thinks it’s very VERY hungry. I go tell Nihm to climb the tree and see if it’s friendly. Coryn decides to yell at it. It gets closer. It might be a hippogryph with some kind of scorpion tail? Either way, it yells at us in some kind of language, and I think we might be screwed.

I don’t know what Coryn is saying to it, but I think we might be dinner.

It licks Cam in the face, and she gives it all her meat so that it doesn’t eat her. I back away, just in case. Coryn begans talking to the thing, and I hope he’s not selling us out. I keep my eye out, even as it begins sniffing at my pouch. I give him some meat- no, not that one!- and he backs off. It has a few things to say, and flies away- Coryn calls it “Rosebud”.

Not long after, our road forks, and we decide to go Northeast. Granted, it seems to be longer, but safer. Coryn tells us that Rosebud said that there were some people going that way, too.

Hopefully, they’re friendly people.

Raharjo and Cam get a closer look, at the footprints, which are pretty deep. Coryn puts in his two cents; perhaps the tracks we are following aren’t trying to hide themselves. Raharjo deduces that these people are under a forced march. We continue on, unsure of whether or not that we want to meet the makers of these tracks. We soldier on nonetheless, and make camp at the end of the day.

The road has dried up a little bit, and we gain some ground on whoever it is in front of us, and the weather dries up a bit. It’s not long before we see the caravan in front of us. There are some Dragonborn in the group, as well as some Kalds. Hmm…

They’ve made camp on the side of the road, eating but not standing. Coryn, Raharjo, and myself try to sneak up on them, and they’re speaking Harnesh- which is good I guess, and ty seem to be talking about some kind of monster on their heels, and something else about a person named Yuri who got killed. They mght not be harmful to us…

We agree to let me go out there and announce myself. They tell me not to go south. A tree killed their friend. I tell them that we are a troupe of dancers, and that my name (alias!) is Richard Danson. After a short break, we break camp, and begin traveling with the merchants. After a bit of conversation, their partnership is just as strange as ours. These people are pretty poor, but they each have a specialty. They’ve got some supplies, and Coryn suggests that we let them use our bedrolls. They are wary, but grateful in the end.

Our travels continue, and these guys are pretty relaxed. They’ve all known each other for a long time, and they visit towns in Nutella and help people fix up their homes. They’re wondering do-gooders, essentially. Thankfully, the day passes uneventfully, and we make camp once again. I think they like us!

There’s a storm coming, though, and in the early morning, a tree falls over. It doesn’t rain though- weird. The air smells like electricity and ozone- an odd smell. That tree is on fire, and we establish a fire line and put it out. We find a river and bathe…

Raharjo asks about the town we’re going to (though I should’ve done that myself!). The town seems to be a stopgap between bigger places.

There’s a lot more traveling, here. Oh yeah, and finally the rain comes. In a flash flood. We head for the hills, hoping to get out of the flood. Instead, we get assaulted by a wall of water! We try to get away, and Raharjo seems to have inherited some sort of…mud baby? The thing cries an awful lot.

After the flood, the landscape is unrecognizable, and the mudbaby is asleep at Raharjo’s feet….

So, we're in a forest, right?

Well, I survived a grass dragon, thanks to the impromptu help of Nihm, who’s still wriggling under the thing.

And she bites me. And yells. And points. And bleeds. And chastises me.

It kind of makes me wonder if she has any friends at all.

Well, she has one, at least. Cam tries to tend her wounds, and I’m still pretty shocked. I step back while Cam and Nihm harvest the, um, grass dragon. Or rather, I watch them mutilate the corpse of the thing for no apparent reason. I take a breather as they others check on Coryn. When everyone is ready, we travel once again. Thankfully, there’s no more excitement.

When we set up camp, Cam agrees to take the first couple of watches, and I’ll take the next couple.

Unfortunately, I wake up in time to watch Nihm utterly destroy a bush with a petrified skull in it. Nonplussed, I walk around for another hour, and go back to sleep. In the morning, it’s pretty much the same routine- the foraging people forage while the non-foragers break the rest of the camp. Cam finds some trout, and we have some fish stew.

I miss burgers, personally. I’m not much for being out in the countryside, but I’m trying to stay out of people’s way, and learn more about them in the process. We learn that when she’s bored, Nihm is a pretty decent imitator. Coryn likes to work with his alchemy set. Cam seems to watch her surroundings all time, while Rahardjo is content to listen to Nihm do her impressions (and walk around the camp looking bored). I’m not really sure how we’re going to accomplish our task, but somehow, our group of miscreants will accomplish the impossible.

But, it’s another day done.

After I wake up from a really nice sleep, I’m assaulted by this story of a snail’s shell that was pretty well broken on the ground. There’s a letter written on the shell of some sort, but I don’t know what it means, and nobody really knows either. I go back to sleep.

It’s a drizzly day the next day. Wet, but not entirely unpleasant. Complaints are at a minimum, and I keep mine to myself. The foragers do their thing, and I keep my eyes open and watching the flora and fauna around us. Despite this, Coryn and Cam spot something dead in the forest before I do, and everyone rushes to see how it died. After a moment, Rahardjo starts yelling about something called a Barghest that just completely goes over my head. They all do come to the conclusion that we’re better off getting out of the forest, lest it eat us, too!

At the end of the day, a lot of us decide to sleep in trees, so I guess I will too. I’m preparing myself for an uncomfortable sleep when Rahardjo talks to Coryn about what a Barghest is, while Cam and Nihm talk nonsense to each other.

Yeah, I’ve got pain in funny places, but I stretch it out after I climb down. I think it’s been decided that we’re just sleeping in trees now, which makes me nervous. I scare the hell out of some passing elk, and I just want to go back to the city.

We walk by a giant lump in the ground, and the rest of them take turns poking it with sticks and digging around it. I’m almost despondent at this point, but I don’t show it. I keep it together, even when they pull a skull out of the lump, and then various body parts later on. All in all, it’s pretty morbid. I think that if someone’s buried there, we should just leave him alone- why tempt fate, you know? Thankfully, we move on after a while. There’s some tracking of the footprints that are not far away, but we don’t really get very far with it.

Just a leisurely stroll through the woods...

That makes me the Team Leader, albeit temporarily. I’m a little nervous about it, and that Nihm hates my guts. I understand that, though- she hates Kalds, and I’m half a Kald myself. I guess the worst that could happen is that I die- and given my Wanted status, that might be a good thing.

Verman hands me a sack with our Requisitions inside, as sort of a rushed goodbye- I guess he just wants us out of here.

Not that’s that a bad thing; the mountain here is very picturesque, among the forests and chirping birds- kind of what we’re fighting for.

When we camp for the night, I hand out the Requisitions. I got nothing for it, but apparently one of our dead received some “Crack Powder,” which is apparently a strong hallucinogen and narcotic. I’ll pass. Cam projectile vomits at Nihm, with a sound that I think I want to forget. When we start to divvy up the watch shifts, I tell Cam to just get some sleep, and I’ll take a double shift. I down for a nap while Nihm takes first shift (dangerous, I know!).

Minus the incredibly loud forest animal noises, everything is still and boring. After a nice sleep in the Magic Bedroll, Cam hunts us up some food, scoring a fat hare in the process. It was worth the hour-and-a-half setback to cook the thing. Afterwards, we set off on the trail, and Cam and Rahardjo occasionally leave the trail to forage, which is all right. I keep my ears and eyes open just in case, but it’s smooth traveling the whole day.

Cam begins to preserve the hare fur she got during the day, and we stoke a fire. We eat rather handsomely during the evening, after which Coryn tries to make some kind of poison. All I really do is walk the perimeter and be nervous about this Brevit Umlaut thing. With a sudden start (on my way to the bathroom no less!), Nihm tells me not to crap in the bushes on account of the Poison Ivy, but she could just be messing with me. I pull my pants down, just as she starts screaming “Tasselwyrm!” at the top of her lungs, and jumps me upside down. I’m looking at furry private parts as I feel her breath on my own. But suddenly, part of the poison ivy lunges at me, and I yelp, realizing only now that she’s not trying to compliment me.

Whatever the thing is, it bites into Nihm’s butt, and she yelps too. A crossbow bolt flies past me and jambs itself into the dragon-like thing. Coryn yells something I don’t hear on account of Nihm’s cursing, and an arrow strikes the thing as Cam’s bow twangs. Rahardjo completely whiffs a shot to the thing, and the dragon-like thing claws and bites more at Nihm. She manages to bounce around enough that the claws don’t harm her, but the look in its eyes is wicked as it predicts her next move, and chomps down on her. Another bolt whizzes by me, and Nihm tries to snatch its tongue. Amazingly, she manages to sink her claws into the thing. She’s got no strength to yank the thing out, but the creature is none too happy about it.

An arrow flies into the thing’s mouth, and I spring away from the thing, landing on its tail instead of the poison ivy that I want no part of! As an added bonus, I sink my dagger into its tail, getting a nice view of Rahardjo muttering and jamming up his gun. The thing yanks its tail out from under me, and I land feet-first into the poison ivy. I breath a small sigh of relief. Coryn shoots the thing in the breastbone, and it falls over with Nihm on it.

Out of the frying pan, into the volcano

We finally move out from this cave. We travel for a while, and feels like forever. We tell stories and whisper amongst ourselves. Rahardjo tells me that he was a highway patrolman; I tell him I was a political liability. The poor guy gets picked on a little bit by the womenfolk as we pick our way through the tunnels.

Although it isn’t long before we come across a few Darkmantles, though I had hoped to avoid them. I hide, and make damn sure they can’t see me as we pass under them. Unfortunately, Coryn takes a shot at them, and the attack begins. Rahardjo takes a shot at them too, and his bullet strikes home. One of the Darkmantles screeches in pain, and the other Darkmantles become a lot more aggressive. Coryn takes another shot and pretty much destroys one of them. Of course, my luck is not so good- when I try my hand at it, the sidearm that Rahardjo lets me borrow jams up! We watch as the Darkmantles…and I feel something on my back!

She yanks my hair, and I pistol-whip her. She tries to bite my ear, and I flip myself onto my back hard enough to dislodge her. She’s not very happy, but neither am I. She accuses me of cutting down trees, and I threaten to pee on her. She calls me a dope, and runs away.

“That’s right, you run away!” I scream. In the heat of the moment, I’m not very creative. I do what I do best; I hide! I’m not much in the way of fighting, and there’s only so much that I can do against so much rage and fur and claws.

The group continues to argue back and forth, but I’m satisfied to be back here. That was pretty close for me, after all! We all plod along the path.

Eventually, we make camp, and I’m able to get some sleep. But when I wake up…she is watching me! Ever so carefully, I slither out of my sleeping bag…and through it at her! While she’s tangled up in it, I do what I do best- I hide. But the joke’s on me, though: While I’m hiding, Nihm gathers up my sleeping bag and pees on it.

I’m gonna get her but good one of these days!

They strike camp and I follow at a discreet distance, and another half-day out, we’re out of the caves! I watch Nihm climb one of the trees (I’m so gonna get her!), and they turn into people with shotguns, with some dude who looks like he’s in charge. Rohardjo argues a bit on my behalf on Nihm’s treatment of me, but it’s a moot point- she’s pretty well prejudiced against me and Kald’s in general. It’s okay, I guess; we all have our hangups.

We get taken to a camp, and I find myself some real clothes. The Quartermaster gives us all Chain Shirts, and I have a look at some of the things there. I try to get my sleeping pack from Nihm, and she won’t give it back! We argue for a while, and the Sergeant comes over.

“Is there a problem here?” he asks.

“She’s the one with the problem!” I yell back forgetting myself. “She urinated all over my sleeping pack and won’t give it back!”
He snatches the pack away from her, and sniffs it. “It smells like roses,” he says.

“Her urine smells like sunshine and roses!” I yell at the Sergeant, and he throws it at me and shakes his head.

“I don’t want to hear anymore about this,” he says. For the rest of the day, he keeps his eyes on both of us.

Finally, I get some sleep.

Verman wants to meet with us, and seems pretty mellow for a guy who had his plans blown out of the water. Verman gives me a rank of Rot (?), and I accept. Nihm raises an objection at my appointment to the group. She doesn’t really get that if I go back to them, I’m a dead guy- if they realize it’s me. It’s a moot point, though. I’m in.

Verman gives us an objective: To buy him three months for the northern border by way of Anarchy. But first, he sends us through SERE training to “bond.” (Crap!). I’m not normally great at that sort of thing.

And then? He appoints me the Brevit Umlaut- the Team Leader! Well, temporarily, anyway. Still, it’s quite a shock, but I’m up for it. After all, the Kald tried to destroy me in that prison camp, and I’m not letting them get away with that. If our mission is to stop the Kald at all costs, then they’ll be stopped.

Creeping our way to freedom~!

Delver’s Dale has been destroyed. To be honest, I’m happy to see it go. It’s so hard to keep track of the days, but I think that I’ve been here for about two years- if I had to venture a guess. It’s not a nice place, even as far as prison camps are concerned. I’ve been subjected to strange tortures, and the Warden was making exception work of his surroundings. They’ve forgotten, though, that even if the Kalds are cruel and unyielding, they are also exceedingly brilliant and darkly inventive.

They keep the prisoners in line with slimes and oozes, if you can believe it. The kalds have a special salt that they lay down around our “cells” and then set the blobs loose on the floor to patrol. The salt is not always accurate, but that only serves to keep the rest of us in line. The work is very grueling, and we weren’t fed as much as we should have been. If it hadn’t been for those new prisoners…

It was true that they made absolute asses out of themselves, but they are effective…and manipulative. They convinced the Warden to open their own bar, if only as a front to whatever operation they were running. I’m not completely sure of the particulars, but I’m sure it has something to do with either ferrying prisoners to safety, or to further elaborate on their tunnel system (which I’m not entirely sure exists, but it would account for their spontaneous disappearances).

When the new prisoners assaulted Delver’s Dale from within, it was quite sudden. It was almost expertly crafted; catching Manulf Meuller offguard was a stroke of genius. It ensure that the Warden did not have his aid when the time came, and the rest pretty well fell into the prisoner’s hands. There was a full scale riot, and I found myself free. I regret that I only clubbed two guards to death with boots that I had surreptitiously removed from their own feet. After that, I was busy running my ass off to get myself free of the Dale.

It was then that I realized that I was not free. There was a reason that I was in Delver’s Dale in the first place, and I knew that if I were to just show up again, I’d be dead. Suddenly, staying under the radar looked awfully tempting, and I threw my lot in with the prisoners. I’m not sure how useful to them I’ll be, but at least my efforts can be counted to fill their ranks. I’m not without my own resources.

Aside from that, we’ve got to find another way out of here that isn’t through the proverbial front door, and I’m going with them through the tunnels…and who can say if we’ll come out again? We could all die down there- but at least we’ll all die as free men.

Onwards, towards Nutella…and freedom.

So, as we walked down the tunnels, Nihm makes a point of threatening me. So she hates Kalds; I guess I shouldn’t tell her that I’m not too fond of them myself. We keep forging ahead, though, and find some mushrooms that may or may not be poisonous. Our trail ends in a huge chasm at our feet. I can almost make out the far side of the chasm almost sixty-five feet away- and nothing else.

Coryn tosses some dirt in the air, and finds our path. I take off my shirt and snatch up more dirt to toss- but the path is not straight; it zags in places. It takes us and the refugees quite some time to get across, and leave a message to wipe off the dirt at the rest of their passing. We are, after all, advanced scouts, and we’re supposed to take care of all the hard stuff.

We stop to rest not long after, and I take the first watch, hoping that nothing happens, but not relying on it. Nihm keeps an eye on me (big surprise), but I hear a noise up ahead. I tell Nihm to keep an eye out, and disappear into the shadows. I creep ahead.

I find a human stumbling around in the dark, and I use my superior stealth to come up behind him and take him prisoner with the stalactite I pick up off the ground. It’s obvious that this guy is a military man, and that perhaps he’s not from a Kaldan force…but I take no chances. I lead him back to the fire, and he establishes contact, and tries using Forest Shadow’s alias to confirm his identity.

“Azaleas!” the man screams at the top of his lungs, “Azaleas!”

I set down the stalactite and lay off the guy; he’s had enough surprises for one night. They debate the semantics of navigating the cave, and I’m pretty lost amidst their rank and official titles. It’s not that I don’t care, it’s just that I don’t really pay attention to it all.

However, we realize that this guy comes from elsewhere, but we’re goin to Nutella. Good thing he was by himself.

Meanwhile, “Forest Shadow” reprimands me for going it alone, and trade quips about Nihm’s niceties. Sure, she could be a nice person when we get to know her- whenever that is. Personally, I don’t really blame her. Either way, I catch some shuteye- who knows how long we’ll be down here.

Upon waking, this new person tells us to watch out for stalactite/Darkmantles, whatever they are. Monsters, apparently. Although, “don’t walk under stalactites” is very strange advice when inside a cavern. And this guy also says that there’s Minotaurs down here, too. Not sure if that’s true or not, and Coryn doesn’t believe it, also.

Free at last!

No, my real name is not Jareth Ausk, nor is it the identity of my first cover identification. Needless to say, it’s the name that I go by here, in Delver’s Dale. No one really knows why I’m here except for the Warden, and maybe Mueller. It’s not like it matters, though. I’ll never leave this place alive. So, I toil around in this hell, praying for the end.

A small cause for hope showed up not long ago: A new group of prisoners who don’t seem to know the meaning of the word. It doesn’t take a brain trust to realize that since the new guys have shown up, monsters and phantoms have been coming out of the woodwork. And suddenly, they’ve got a bar? Something’s not right- or rather, something IS right. These new people are pulling the wool over the Warden’s eyes! It would be impressive, if it doesn’t constantly look like their little enterprise will fail at any moment.

Only, it doesn’t. In fact, it only gets stranger. These new people are pretty good, and it’s not long before there’s a revolt. It’s not so different from the others- except for the fact that it works, and works well. These guys wind up taking over the camp, and blowing the place wide open.

I’ve never entertained the notion that I’d ever get out of here alive. Now, I’m faced with the option of rebuilding my life, such as it was. But what kind of life would I have? Even among the Kalds, I’m an outcast to anyone who knows my real name. I have no idea what to do now, but maybe I’ll find my direction….

It looks like these guys are destroying whatever they used to help overthrow the Dale, but at least they share their magic table with us that gives us food. I’m on my fourth helping before I’m noticed, and there’s a low growl everywhere. Suddenly, I get a gunrack in my ass, and I point to it and shout, “It was you.” They turn and look at all of us- at least I’m not getting the crap kicked out of me- even though, with this hole in my ass, I’d be a little bit better at it. Needless to say, me and the Qatar exchange bravado, but we get nowhere as their ringleader tells us to back off. Which suits me; I’ve not been in a fight in years! I go back to nibbling, but I’m not very hungry. I’ve eaten my bodyweight in meat. I just don’t know when the opportunity will ever arise again.

Anyway, the preambulating lamp guides me to some kind of hidden control room, and begins to stitch up the wound in my butt. Their ringleader is fiddling with a radio of some sort, and I’m not really sure what they’re up to. Hopefully, it’s not getting me killed.

All told, I’m pretty sure there’s some kind of communique happening between subversive outposts. I’m not sure what’s really going on here, but I wonder if he’s talking to the mastermind of their little plan. I think I’m understanding that this Puppetmaster was not expecting them to utterly annihilate the camp, and I’m sensing a type of frustration coming from his end. I think Pupptemaster wants them to go to Nutella, and I’m going to…invite myself.

Uh oh.

We gear up for an ambush for Manulf. This isn’t going to be easy,and we try to prepare for every eventuality. I’m sure we’re forgetting something, though. But we’ve no time to waste here- this has to look like a werewolf attack if we’re to implicate the werewolves and deflect the blame. We go through our daily routine, and I’m just not sure about this. But, we’ve come to far to go back- we must stick to the plan.

We wait while Gwyn gathers supplies, and I take a nap.

Which is rudely awakened by Nihm kicking me awake while a mouse screeches and runs around like a lunatic. Sigh. I grab up my dagger and, with the others, take off and follow. As it turns out, Manulf is there, and everything’s on fire- including Gwyn. We lay the smackdown on this guy, and Coryn blows Manulf’s head clean off his body. The jig is up. We’ve got no choice, now. We have to fight.

And that’s when I see the pile of flamethrowers. Coryn and I suit up- this is going to be messy. Nihm runs off after the guards who ran after they saw Manulf’s head disappear. Coryn stops long enough to send an Animal Messenger to the other prisoners.

Now, it’s on.

We close in on Nihm’s location, both Cam and I streaming fire from either side of Nihm. Cam is spot on- I guess she’s had some training- but my fire stream goes wide and up. We watch Nihm get shishkebobbed by halberds. Cam keeps the heat on, but I’m not really doing well myself. I get rewarded by having one of these guys charge at me, halberd flailing away. I get stabbed pretty badly, but I can’t stop now. Somewhere, Cam lights up another guy,and I try my hand again. I watch as a bunch of grass and a tree catch fire. I’m not sure if this is actually going to work. Nihm is still down, and Halcea is coming into the battle, throwing out some kind of elemental bolt. Frantic, I’m still flailing around, setting everything on fire, just as the guy—

I come to, with my pants loose and Cam standing over me. There’s an awkward pause, and everything’s on fire. Frustrated, I ditch the flamethrower, and bring my sniper rifle to bear. This has gone on long enough.

Halcea gives us a few orders from Gwyn: He wants us to organize prisoners in resistance. Sounds fair. Dropping the flamethrower, I run up the hill with the others. I take aim with my sniper rifle and crack off a shot, but my bullet goes wide. This is just not my night! Still, Halcea is able to take one out, and Nihm chases down the other one. Cam, Halcea and I spin the other guy around with our bullets, and we make short work of Kald #2. From the Snuggly duckling, we track down Alfie, but he’s not here. We don’t know where. Halcea tries to convince me that Alfie is not the dead printing press, and we must press on.

We head down to the tunnels- and I spy that some of the Kaldan soldiers are coming our way. Cam and I set ourselves up to take these guys out with some direction from Nihm. While Cam is facing the Warden, however, I’ll point my sniper rifle in the other direction, hoping to cover her back.

Cam let’s loose a stream of fire; I ready my sights as the others wait. She charcoals a bunch of those guys, and I wait to see who of the soldiers behind her react. They all turn around, and I ricochet a bullet off the wall. What can I say? It’s dark! The soldiers begin to move, and I really hope this whole thing works.

Suddenly, the Kaldan soldiers get a LOT closer, closer than I’m comfortable with! I gulp. I hear Cam yell for me to duck, and I sure as hell do! Prone, I fire off a shot, putting a bullet through a man’s eyeball. A burst of fire rushes down the cramped hallway just above me, singing the hairs on the back of my neck. I feel the rush of air as Cam runs back as they advance, raising their halberds above my prone body*

“So, we're in the prison camp, right?”

We wake up; we’ve spent a whole week doing reconnaissance.

We had manuals in our own army, so why should the Kald’s be any different? Nihm has this idea that we can find one of their military bibles, we can help us disguise Gwyn as the Warden. He’s the most social and charismatic of us, he’d be the best to pull it off. Assuming they have this book, of course.

I’m a little apprehensive about this plan- if it blows up, we’re all going to die.

We’ve spent a week looking into a lot of lives.

Korin finds enlistment papers. Manulf Mueller He was put into the army by essentially being press-ganged into it. He was a gambler.

Kam and I discover that his schedule is very morning intensive, and kicks ass. He and the Commandant inspect the soldiers and the grounds. They go back to the office until lunch, which they take with the men. Afterwards, he goes and does solitary training, and then inspects the outbuildings in the afternoons. Manulf challenges men after eating with them, and wins. He has no friends, and is contempuous of his underlings. Truthfully, I think it would be better to try and be Manulf, but hey, I don’t make these plans.

We found several drafts to the commandant on morale and requests for people in his garbage- that gives us his handwriting. We conclude that Mueller has to be running book for the camp. We get some short-term plans, and loves chocolate coated bananas. He’s pretty regular in his routines; we just need to follow him.

Translation: He’s still gambling, and he’s covering it up. We don’t know what he’s like; maybe he cheats.

So, we know we have to follow him. We need to find out where he goes. We’ve got so little information to go on, despite the fact that we’ve got so much. Our plan is precarious, that’s for sure. But we decide that we will follow this guy, at night. Since I can cast Light (but of course, I don’t have it prepared!), I’m going to have to rest all day so that I’ll be ready with it tonight, and that’s what I do. The other guys will have to do without me until tonight.

After “work”, we take some time, but we follow Mueller’s trail, which joins a game trail, which comes to a clearing. There is a large circle worn into the grass…curious. The trail ends here, though. But there are another set of unshod human footprints, and I have no idea what this is, and try to help Kam figure it out. For some reason, we’re all sure he’s meeting with a werewolf of some sort, and that kind of sucks. Non-were wolves are pretty good and sniffing out things, and they may know that we’re here. Which means, we might be boned. We go back to the Snuggly Duckling, and get some rest before roll call.

Kelvic,they report to him. They did report that, as far as they can tell, Vermin is dead. Good for our team. The end result is that Manulf showed up. They reported no strange activity. Manulf carries that ledger every damn place, which will be hard to get. He’s not doing monetary gambling, though. Nihm isn’t sure about what they were gambling about. Mouse took off after Kelvic. Maybe there’s something buried there. It followed Kelvic. She draws some stuff that was drawn in the dirt in the circle. I can’t really understand it. The language just makes no sense! Kelvic was apparently writing in the dirt, and wiping it away with his foot. A good way to communicate if someone’s scrying on you. We don’t know where this home place is- and snooping around would be way too suspicious.

So, we plan a bit more. We figure that the commandant knows about the gambling. Halcea remembers that we’ve got some of Manulf’s writing samples- we could really mess with them. Gwyn tells Alfie to make some fake money; he won’t be able to make a lot. We plan to poison this guy, and we have to make some more.

I’m still pretty sure we’re all going to die, but I’m convinced now that it’ll be a hell of a ride!

Taking a breather....mostly.

All right, so we rescued Vermin from an untimely demise. Not that much later, we actually fked his death, so that he’d be free to go about town and muck things up from there, to expand our little network. We’re also going to do something about the Warden- but that involves getting close to his mistress as well. She’s not the only one, either- we’re going to scout out Manulf as well. Personally, I’m not sure what all is going to come of this, but knowing our luck, this will blow up in our faces.
But what the hell; we’ve got nothing left to lose, anyway!

On a more personal note, pretending to be an utter duncecap is starting to wear on me…even as I begin to enjoy it. If I hadn’t, I’d be wearing manacles that would cut off what little magical power I have. It’s taxing, to be sure, but at least I’m as safe as I can get in a military prison. I’m still alive.

A little bit of talk, and a lot more action!

Not sure about this Kam woman, but she seems to be okay. I might just be paranoid, but I find it hard to actually trust anyone in this prison. Of course, this is prison- your not supposed to be able to trust anyone. She does, however,bring us news of the war. Granted, it’s two months old, but I guess any news is good news…right?

She does bring us some good news: The Shava forest is now well-defended. It did catch fire, but it is defended. The Kald are stalemated there. Apparently, Nutella is where the new push is, perhaps to get to the Stonekin. They are burning just about everything in their wake, though.

We decide to get into the Warden’s office for some info, and come up with a halfway ludicrous plan to do it- my job is provide a distraction when asked. To make sure I’m adequately placed, I act like I’m cleaning a window while Coryn is in the meeting. I think I’m beginning to enjoy acting like a complete doofus in front of everyone to mask my magic.

But, the time comes. The Commandant is done with his meal, which is my cue. I skip as quick as I can, towards the Warden’s office. The guard out front is at his post, looking bored.

Time to liven up his day.

I run up to him and scream, “Tag! You’re it!” in my best doofus voice, and go running off. He catches me in a foot sweep with a stick, and I hit the ground hard- and start rolling, giggling the whole way, hoping to drag the guard away from his post long enough for the pair of us that are in the Warden’s office.

Unfortunately for me, I roll right into five other guys. Crap. Man, I hope the job is done…

I wake up in solitary confinement, but thankfully, I do wake up. I’m not sure what else is going on, though. I have to wait until night falls, and then I escape Solitary and find myself in that ever-so-soft magic bedroll, getting a great night’s sleep in an hour. By the time I make it back to the hideout, everyone’s staring at a funky nursery rhymes. Nihm writes some stuff down, and says, “Oh, dear. Guys, we have a problem.”

Somehow, we discover that Vermin is in deep trouble, and is apparently getting set up by the Kalds. We discover here that Kam can track, and go off to find the man…

Only to discover that we’re in a forest by way of a hole in a tree. We have to fight off some, but one gets away. Chasing, we come across Vermin himself, fighting off some wolves- and a werewolf!

We give ‘em a beat down. Vermin was hurt pretty badly, but we save his life (even if he’ll never admit it).

Amongst the bodies we find: a Money pouch, kaldan currency, 20 copper, 10 silver, 15 gold, small clay amulet inscribe with a symbol of the Kaldan Irregulars (highly unlikely). A small silver knife. Longsword, light crossbow and a chain shirt.)

Mission update

Mission update:

This is an update from Gwen of the Eclipse caste. After a successful mission to stop the Kald from crossing a bridge we were captured by the enemy. After a few weeks of harsh treatment and what I am sure they considered torture using fire and lack of water (They have no idea what heat and drought is) we arrived at a prison/slave camp. We managed to convince them to mostly ignore us at 1st, and I quickly realized that the warden was an idiot that I could manipulate so we went about making sure he would not lose his job. Vermen, a human, is in charge and he is running an operation that is meant to save as many POW’s as possible and we offered our services to him thinking we could help him more here then we could on the front line. We managed to acquire a golem that could sneak into the wardens office and make sure his “skimming off the top for his girl friend” was not noticed by his superiors.

Then a higher up Kald came to inspect this prison/mine, he had with him another Dragonking I am assuming is part of my same cast and is on a mission to see if the Kald are worth siding with. I was then singled out and invited to have dinner with the inspector and the DK, I convinced them I was no threat and now the warden trusts me as much as I think he could trust a slave of war.

After the dinner and the inspector left the warden started inviting me to sit and eat with him almost on a nightly basis, and he had me start building a “bar” so his soldiers could drink alcohol. And we have set up a secret base of sorts and don’t have to work in the mines.

And update on the Kald:
The Kald are like a child with a weapon. They tortured us without even asking us who we were or our rank, when they finally did try to torture us for information we had a resistance to the torture and were able to fool them into thinking we knew nothing.
They barely feed there slaves and expect them to work as hard as they can even with little to no water. They keep us in our “cells” by having acid creatures that wont cross salt but will kill anything not protected by a salt barrier.
The Kald are lazy overconfident and I believe they wont stop till every races is dead or there slaves including the Dragon Kings and if we don’t join the war for the alliance as soon as possible it may be to late. They wont be able to handle fighting us in the desert, but nor will we be able to fight them in the north if all the other races are wiped out.

I love it when a plan comes together!

Next Day.

So, I’m still trying to figure out this magic thing. I still have that one spell buzzing around in my brain, but now its crowded with a bunch of others. I…I don’t think I get it, but I’ll just go with it for now. After a short rest, they don’t give us any food, so I’m famished- or, I would be, if Berman hadn’t given us some food before last night’s mission. The Warden tells us to get back to work, which is just us mining platinum. Suits me, I was pretty good at it.

Back to the cavern with us, to mine platinum. I use this time to perfect my pickaxe technique, which still is pretty lacking. Our agent friend talks to Berman and leaves, looking a bit dismayed. Gwyn comes up with a plan to get our Kapyip friend off the cross. Berman wants to implicate some guards and some prisoners in a smuggling operation, and needs us to cover for him. We all have to work a little bit harder, though, but it doesn’t bother me so much.

Berman comes back with some platinum for Gwyn to plant on someone. I really hope this works. Berman points out the gang, and needs a distraction.

Fair enough.

I walk up to them, drop my pants, and pee on them, shouting, “I peed! I peed!” in my biggest, loudest dumbass voice. They jump back, and Berman runs up and apologizes, pulling my pants up and dragging me off while I laugh out loud in my stupid voice. I hope this works. My deed done, I go back to work, and maybe I’ll even be able to cover for those other jokers. We don’t really get supper, on account of the half-rations and all that. But, I think our scheme could be successful. We’ll have to wait and see.

Gwyn and me spend our time anxiously waiting for Berman’s results by carving a happy face into the wall. It makes me nervous, the waiting. The Warden storms down with a bunch of guards, wondering about a guy named Vann, and storms away. About twenty minutes later, Halsea comes scampering in, and I sweep her up in a hug. We’re successful! We do have to get her back to work, though, sadly.

At the end of our shift, The Warden tells us that our production will go back up, and there’s something about platinum smuggling and if anyone knew about it, he’d break our legs. Gee, I have no idea what he’s talking about…!

Later that night, Berman comes for us, and gives us his lotion. I completely screw up my circle trying to be stealthy- which I’m not good at- and Gwyn helps me put my salt circle back together. The three of us (Halsea in tow) go to our hidden headquarters, and the tree lady accosts Nihm, happy that she’s alive. I feel the same way.

Berman lays out our plan, which was to have this new contraption- Alphie is its name?- doctor the records, and have Alphie work this odd machine for Kaldan currency. More to the point, I’ve never seen the sort of machine that Alphie is! Or is it a real person? I think a part of our plan goes over my head, because I’m weirded out by the machine guy. He says that his consciousness resides all over.

We sit around and talk about the plan for a while, and it seems like it could be a good one. For my part, I think I can help out with my gunsmithing by improvising part. All we need is access to the smithy..

I have an idea…we can fake a new monster running around! I can do silent images, while Gwyn can do ghost sounds and Nihm can mimic sounds. Coryn (I think that’s the agent’s name), comes up with an idea that we could use a Rust Monster to fake.

After that, we turn to Berman and ask him, “Well, what do you think?” He looks at us like we’re nuts and thinks that it could, just maybe, work. He’ll have Nihm rejoin us in the population, and we also need to have Alphie gain access to the Warden. Berman has a plan, but we can also try to make something up as well. It involves getting Alphie into the Warden’s office as a piece of equipment- being some sort of robot man, it could work- and then tampering with the files after the Warden leaves.

It’s a good plan.

Over the next week, we do make a box for Alphie to put himself into. And we have Coryn deliver him while I practice with Halsea with mimicking the Rust Monster. I think we’ve got this, but we’ll need some more practice. We find a couple of iron spikes for her to use, and I think we’ll be somewhat convincing. Coryn goes off to deliver Alphie, while we practice (and Nihm does our work for us). We do try to hide some platinum for Alphie’s forgeries, and we need to find some copper to help us out.

As our production increases, our rations go back to normal, and the atmosphere lightens. We all don’t have to pretend like we’re starving. Though I don’t know how Alphie is faring, I hope it (he?) is doing well.

After a couple of weeks, it’s our time to act. Hopefully, Halsea and I have perfected our Rust Monster bit. We try it out, and both prisoners and guards scream and run away. One of them, however, points a crossbow at it and fires, and I think it hits Halsea! To compensate, I know she’s bleeding green, and I have the fake monster run away. The guard calls people in, and me and Halsea make a run for it after I tie my shirt around her. We get the hell out of there as the guards come rushing in, back to the store room with us. I yank the crossbow bolt out and we part ways- I’m supposed to be able to get to the smithy to help.

However, I do have to get by some people.

I use my last Silent Image spell to turn myself into a Kald, and I run past them shouting…something. I’m not sure since I don’t speak Kald at all, but they seem to be fooled. We get into the the smithy, and I have to frighten the bellows boy away. Coryn chastises me for being stupid- specifically, how such a smart person like me can be so stupid. I almost decide to show him how stupid I am by blindsiding him and dropping him into the forge. The Kalds treat us badly enough without getting it from someone who’s supposed to be on my side. I blow it off for the time being- there are more important things to do here- but I’m beginning to wonder if we can truly trust him. So far, he’s proven loyal to myself and the others, but can I really put my trust in someone who has no faith in me or the others…?

Fortunately for me, it all goes incredibly smoothly, and I’m able to make the parts effortlessly, despite being for a completely different machine than I’m used to- I fabricate guns, after all!- it all comes together quite wonderfully. After the parts are made, I’m off to get back to the hidey-hole before I’m terribly missed.

Although, I can’t get back!

I find myself stuck in the smithy, and I ask Coryn if he can get me a uniform. It’ll be a long shot, but I think I can do this- I am a soldier, after all! I hide in the closet while he does his thing, and it’s pretty tense. However, I am a soldier…I might be able to fake it long enough to get back down into the tunnels…and then be naked.

Crap.

I shed my uniform, put on my other clothes, and then the uniform. I have Coryn point me at the slave barracks, and I hope this works. So far, so good. I manage to fit in with the other humans. I’ll stay here until nightfall, and then go back into the tunnels under the cover as myself.

I do keep the uniform though. Who knows? It could come in handy. And I have the machined parts to boot. When I get the chance, I deliver the machined parts to the machine. All told, I think I was personally very successful. I got the parts, I got a uniform.

At night, we go back to our headquarters, and I show Berman and the others the parts. The popular opinion is that they’ll work, and Alphie seconds it.

A good plan, with a fatal flaw

Back in my cell after torture. Joy. I’m surrounded by salt, and this whole place is patrolled by oozes. That’s a little weird. This guy, Berman, seems like a mirthless kook, but he knows what he’s talking about. The inside of this place is dark-ish.

Oh crap…I discover that I can cast magic…without my book! I’m freaking out on the slave line a little bit, but then again…this could be useful. I make a silent image of the Warden taking a dump in a mine cart, and Nihm provides the voice for him. It’s incredibly funny. However, our friend- Blackwyvern could be his name, I’m still a bit fuzzy- Drags Nihm off on suspicion of magic, which worries me. I’m still a little buzzed by being able to cast magic without my book, but we may have a better plan. Maybe.

Back to work with us. They come in with a weird sheet, able to view the magic done. They see what I did to the warden’s silent image, something that they believe Nihm had done herself. This…this could work! They drag off Halcea, and do something I don’t see to her, leaving me and Gwyn alone, and we keep working, hoping that the plan worked.

All told, I was incredibly productive.

On our way back to barracks, we understand that Nihm was killed, which makes me pretty sad. I did like her, even if she was foul tempered. Other Qatars seem angry and/or proud of her, and it occurs to me that we don’t know if Nihm was ever successful.

I sincerely hope so. It cost her her life.

We go back to our cells, pretty disheartened about the whole affair. Berman has us go towards the first line in the cell, and has Gwyn play music and let us know that, indeed, Nihm was not dead, and that he has a mission. Not that we know what it is, but he seems to need us around. Besides, there’s no place to go, and we’d probably just get eaten or killed in any case. Meanwhile, it would give us a chance to do some internal sabotage…assuming we stay alive that long. Blackwyvern (raven? Still not sure) shows up, and Berman is amazed that he’s really one of us…supposedly. Berman told us that he is engaged in sabotage activities and expatriate Cornu that are held in various camps that are used to make weapons.

Berman gives us something to put on our hands and face, and pets an ooze to demonstrate the alchemical stuff. He shows us a secret passage, and makes sure that we know where to step. We follow him through the tunnel, very smooth, and into a very well apportioned conference room. Although he doesn’t understand Nihm or Halsea very well, we try to explain to him that they can be useful.

He outlines his plans to us. He wants me to make a requisitions request…something I’m pretty damned good at! They have a mission to replace Nihm with a corpse, and they go on it while I enumerate what we need for requisitions. They come back some time later, and it looks like they were successful, and Berman tells me that Nihm’s alive, but we have to go back to our circles before anyone suspects that we were missing. They have us stand at attention for an hour before they let us go to sleep.

A long and painful journey into the heart of Kald Territory

So, the rest of the unit I’m a part of has been taken prisoner by the Kald- well, all except one of us, who has been missing for a few days now. We’ve been forced to march and have been exhausted for the entire journey. Our only rest has come by dehydrating fire, and that’s when I noticed the one member of our party that just so happened to be missing.

Turns out, he’s either joined the Kald or merely infiltrated them, and even though he gives me his water container to ease my thirst (and those of my companions, with a tad bit of distraction on my part), I’m not really sure who’s side he’s truly on.

But really, I’m not the only one who’s in trouble here. In fact, I’m getting off rather lightly. Poor Nim, a Qatar that seemed to have some knowledge of the Kald, has had the bottoms of her feet gashed open by our captors, and hasn’t been faring too well in the last few days. I feel bad for her, but in our present condition, there’s not much any of us can do. Another of our number bargained for medical attention for her, only to get himself beat up in the process.

It takes us quite a while, but we march into the heart of Kald territory, to a prison called Delver’s Dale. I understand that it is to be our final destination. Our warden, a kald named Schultz Burkhalter (which I understand may be spelled differently; I’ve always had a problem with Kaldan names), has had us all tortured and beaten. The joke’s on him, though- I’ve been able to hold out and withstand their petty torture for the last two weeks, and from what I’ve learned, I’m not the only one. Nim’s knowledge of the Kald and their techniques has also allowed her to take their punishments and then some. I really do feel bad for her, but I’m not sure what can be done.

As for myself, I find myself in a predicament. I’ve no spellbook nor rifle to help myself out, and I don’t know what else to do. Amidst all the pain and frustration, though, I feel something trying to break loose within me, and I’m not sure what will happen when it does…

Just living the life in the Army now.

My name is Joseph Graycloud, and I’m in a band of misfit Army personnel called the Half-Squad Fourteen Irregulars. They call us that because we don’t fit the proper method for classification within the ranks of the Allaince Army itself. Take for instance, myself. While I might be considered a rifleman, I also dabble a little in magic, and I can fire cones and rays of magic out of my gun, increasing range and damage. I really haven’t run into anyone else who can do it, but then again, there are lots of places in the world that I haven’t been. I could be wrong.

For some reason, they’ve made me the Requisitions officer. If someone needs something, I get it for them. It’s pretty simple really, and I do have a knack for it. I take to my duty quite well- considering I can also weasel a little bit more pay out of the gig!

So, our little group set out for the Shava Forest. No, they don’t tell us why exactly- knowing why was not a part of our orders. All I know is that I got to talk to my squad-mates for the first time, and I don’t think I like them very much. But, that’s the Army for you- I don’t actually get paid to like the squaddies- I get paid to put bullets into bad guys- currently, the Kalds.

I don’t know anyone who really knows about the Kalds themselves, but they can be some scary guys. However, I’ve shot a few and I can tell you that they do bleed, and anything that bleeds can be killed. I should know that, too. I did kill a couple of Kalds on our forced march to a bridge that would keep the Kalds from burning down the Shava Forest, which we were supposed to keep from happening. To me, it wouldn’t make sense to burn down the forest- why bother? But, I guess the Kalds aren’t paid to make sense, either.

So, there we were, on a forced march towards our objectives when a tower blew, showering us with fire. Fortunately for me, I’m only lightly burnt, so I’m not terribly worried about it. It does sting, though. A lot. I think one of us goes chasing a Kald into the nearby forest, but I’m not sure what he did or who he is- I think he’s one of the Reptok, though. At any rate, he ties the prisoner to a tree, and we move on. Our troops need information, but we’ve got a job to do. There was a unit on our tails before, and more than likely, they’ll pick them up.

Thankfully, we reach the bridge before the Kalds do, and we’re able to get a little bit of rest. Not much, mind you, but a little bit. We’re busy wiring the bridge to explode, and I’m keeping my rifle sighted, making sure the Kalds don’t sneak up on us.

As it turns out, they don’t sneak so well.

The Kalds come up over the horizon, and we wait. We wait for them to get halfway across the bridge before we blow it. Our superior officer, Horthana (a Harnesh if ever I’ve seen one) detonates the bomb- only nothing happens! It doesn’t take long to determine that there’s something wrong with the rigging of the bombs, and Horthana takes off with a pistol. She draws a bead and fires, and blows the bridge just in time- or so we think.

Many of the Kalds fall into the rushing river, but enough of them make it across to outnumber us. I take aim and fire, and take out a couple of them myself while that Reptok tries to rescue the fallen Horthana. I’m pretty sure he does the trick, but I don’t know.

In the end, though, we have to surrender. There’s too many of them, and they offer to not kill us in exchange for taking us prisoner. Hell, none of want to be captured, but we have no real choice in the matter. It’s either get taken to a prison camp- or die.

A blog for your campaign

While the wiki is great for organizing your campaign world, it’s not the best way to chronicle your adventures. For that purpose, you need a blog!

The Adventure Log will allow you to chronologically order the happenings of your campaign. It serves as the record of what has passed. After each gaming session, come to the Adventure Log and write up what happened. In time, it will grow into a great story!

Best of all, each Adventure Log post is also a wiki page! You can link back and forth with your wiki, characters, and so forth as you wish.

One final tip: Before you jump in and try to write up the entire history for your campaign, take a deep breath. Rather than spending days writing and getting exhausted, I would suggest writing a quick “Story So Far” with only a summary. Then, get back to gaming! Grow your Adventure Log over time, rather than all at once.